The Areas file is an electronic list that classifies meshblocks into larger geographic areas, such as area units, territorial authorities and regional councils. The Areas file, also known as a concordance file, provides a mapping of the geographic hierarchies so you can see how the various geographic boundaries link together.
For each meshblock, there is a series of codes that link to any meshblock-defined geographic areas. All areas are set as at 1 January of the specified year. Concordance files are available from differing years, to enable data for the same area classification to be compared over time. A concordance file is useful to geographic information system (GIS) users.